"الجيولوجيا والموارد المعدنية في كلٍ من محافظة ظفار ومسقط وعُمان" [ظ‎‎٢‎٢] (٩٦/٣٤)

20
the pool of Ayun. On the way and while among these brownish
coloured limestones and shales I found the casts of several arge
gasteropods, but they are poor specimens with little or ^ ^^menta
tion and useless for identification. The climb down into the Ayun
gorge is quite 300 feet, if not more, and the beds appear to be wholly of
limestone. The dips-are southward. The pool is quite 200 feet
long and 100 feet across and deep, although the water is clear green
rather than blue. The drop along the wadi bed to the pool must
be 150 to 200 feet (as a cascade when flowing). There was no flow
at the time of my visit, but there was evidence of flood water quite
4 feet deep in the flat bottom valley below the pool. I reckoned
for a width of 250 feet and a depth of 4 feet and a speed of 1 2 feet
per second, that a flood lasting only 12 hours would discharge at a
rate of 1,500 cusecs. This means a total flood of about 64,800,000
cubic feet in 12 hours less or more according to the velocity of the
flood current. The cave on the east of the pool is large and not due
to solution by the water, nor is it artificial, but probably due to
scour when the level of the wadi floor was much higher. I could
not get accurately the name of the wadi in which the A> un pool
occurs. This wadi flows northwards and might be the Ghudan ol
Bertram Thomas’ map.
37 . From Ayun we retraced our steps for some miles and then
camped for the night in a small sheltered valley. The place, is
known as Ha’Khi. It is among the brownish beds (limestones with
chert and gypsum) among which fragments of the rock show forammi-
fera resembling nummulites. Again we had arrived at dusk. Karly
the next morning (7th February) we marched off (apparentH to
please me) in a hurry, then retraced our steps for a mile or so and
struck east for about two miles before turning north and crossing a
line of hills to emerge on a wide and desolate plain, quite flat and
nearly 3 miles across (said to be Haklee). Then, after another
2 miles, we descended quite 200 feet over flat-lying bedded lime
stones into a wide wadi called Hilah (Heelah). The plain (Haklee)
was lightly strewn with small fragments of chert and chalcedony.
On the cliff side into the Hilah I saw casts of large lamellibranches
but with only traces of ornamentation (also some large gasteropods),
and unlikely to afford any specific identification. The beds are, I
think, upper Eocene (Kirthar), but their age will be dealt with
later. There was also a certain amount of gypsum seen as veins of
satin-spar and as granular gypsum in the cliff exposures. There is no
trace of tufa either at Ayun or in Hilah wadi. From the Hilah we
crossed another low line of hills and struck north-eastwards for
Hanun across country differing completely from any encountered
so far.
38. It is an extensive, bare and flat plain with rock showing
or just under the surface. At half-mile or greater distances there